Miguel De Bruycker, director of the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB), said that under the current circumstances, fully storing data within Europe is “impossible” as American tech companies dominate the space
Belgian cybersecurity expert Miguel De Bruycker has warned that Europe is so far behind the US in terms of digital infrastructure that “it has lost the internet.”
De Bruycker, director of the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB), said that under the current circumstances, fully storing data within Europe is “impossible” as American tech companies dominate the space.
“We’ve lost the whole cloud. We have lost the internet, let’s be honest. If I want my information 100 per cent in the EU… keep on dreaming. You’re setting an objective that is not realistic,” De Bruycker told Financial Times.
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The official warned that Europe’s cybersecurity largely depends on the cooperation of privately owned tech companies that are mostly based in the US.
This reliance did not pose an “enormous security problem” for the EU, said De Bruycker, who has led the CCB since its founding a decade ago. However, he added that Europe was falling behind on critical emerging technologies led by the US and other countries, including cloud computing and artificial intelligence, which are essential to defending against cyber attacks.
He said that Europe needs to develop its own capabilities to improve its tech infrastructure, adding that regulations like the EU’s AI Act are “blocking”